Our 2019–20 programme¹ lecture² series, titled Depth of Field³, invites a range of guests to unsettle and excavate⁴ how we practice, think and learn about graphic communication design⁵.

1. This series is open to all 600+ BA and MA Graphic Communication Design students and staff with seats available on a first-come-first-served basis.
2. It will include traditional lectures and other formats, such as discussions, workshops and calls to action.
3. The series title, Depth of Field, challenges the tendency of graphic communication design to be understood as being engaged primarily with surface concerns. Each contributor will raise questions and propose answers from different standpoints about how graphic communication design can substantively contribute to pressing contemporary challenges.
4. We're interested in the way the word 'excavate' is used in context of the emerging field of media archaeology. To read about this, see What is Media Archaelogy? by Jussi Parikka (available electronically from the UAL library).
5. During 2019-20, the programme will be engaged in a project of re-articulating its approach and mission. This will include the initiation of a programme website to which all GCD students and staff will be invited to contribute.

Lecture · King's Cross, F201
Thursday 24 October 2019, 5.30pm

David Reinfurt, O-R-G¹A *New* Program for Graphic Design²

After a brief introduction, David will present eight years of class lectures randomly sampled and compressed into exactly one (perhaps manic) hour.

Rooted in three courses (Typography, Gestalt and Interface) originally developed for liberal arts students at Princeton University, the book and lecture provide a broad introduction from Benjamin Franklin to Bruno Munari³, Moholy-Nagy to Muriel Cooper⁴ and the Macintosh computer.

David will be introduced by Matthew Chrislip⁵.

1. O-R-G is a small software company which designs, programs and publishes; sells apps, websites, screensavers and other small chunks of code. It originated as an experiment in collaboration and the appearance of scale. David has also worked collaboratively as one half of Dexter Sinister and is one of the driving forces behind The Serving Library.
2. A *New* Program for Graphic Design is also the title of David's recently published do-it-yourself textbook (on order by the UAL library). It synthesizes the pragmatic with the experimental and builds on mid-to-late-20th-century pedagogical models to convey advanced principles of contemporary design for a general reader.
3. The latest issue of The Serving Library Annual is entirely devoted to the late Italian designer, artist, inventor and polymath Bruno Munari.
4. David has also recently published a book about Muriel Cooper (available to borrow from the UAL library).
5. Matthew Chrislip is MA GCD Course Coordinator & Year Leader. You can find out more about Matthew’s practice at http://dowland.us.

Discussion · King's Cross, F201
Tuesday 19 November 2019, 5.30pm

Will Rose, Led by Donkeys¹Because we’re going to get a great deal²

Led by Donkeys are creators of celebrated and controversial billboard-based interventions that explore how the pronouncements of British politicians circulate and are situated in public.

Recently they hosted a public competition to unofficially re-design the government's £100m Get Ready campaign³, plowed a giant message into a field in Wiltshire⁴ and published a book⁵ about their work.

Will Rose will speak about their work in discussion with Paul Finn⁶ with an introduction by Rebecca Ross.⁷

1. Led by Donkeys was co-founded as a guerilla billboard campaign in December 2018 by James Sadri, Oliver Knowles, Will Rose and Ben Stewart.
2. On 11 July 2017, Boris Johnson tweeted 'There is no plan for no deal, because we're going to get a great deal.' For one of their first projects, Led by Donkeys re-published this tweet as a billboard in Leeds.
3. The UK government's current advertising campaign can be seen on gov.uk and on billboards and in train stations throughout the country.
4. On October 17 2019, Led by Donkeys released a short film about people who voted for Brexit and have since changed their minds. The film features a helicopter view of a message plowed into a field at Manor Farm in Wiltshire.
5. Led by Donkeys: How four friends with a ladder took on Brexit has just been published in hardback (on order by the UAL library).
6. Paul is BA GCD Platform Leader in Information & Systems. Paul runs graphic design studio Fitzroy & Finn.
7. Rebecca is MA GCD Course Leader and Acting Programme Director. She is also the creator of another billboard-based project, London is Changing.

Call to Action¹ · King's Cross, F201
Thursday 9 January 2020, 5.30pm

Nicole Killian, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityQueering as Praxis

Nicole Killian uses graphic design, publishing, video, objects and installation to investigate how the structures of the internet and online communication affect contemporary interaction and shape cultural identity from a queer perspective².

Nicole has been invited to CSM to share her work and raise questions about our own approaches to queering graphic design and graphic design education. During her visit, she will also be running a series of activities/workshops with BA GCD students which will use a process of foraging, transcription and then translation to create new language.

Stefanie Posavec² is a designer, artist and author. She describes data as her “favoured creative material”, and uses it to relate hands-on approaches to abstract information. Her practice takes in book design, information design, data visualisation and commissioned artworks using data.

Stefanie’s project Dear Data, a collaboration with Giorgia Lupi³, is an example of how data can be used as a material, and as a visual language that describes everyday information–from how often you laugh, to the contents of your wardrobe or bookshelf.

Stefanie will be introduced by Rebecca Wright⁴.

1. Dear Data started as a year-long, analogue data drawing project that used data visualisation as a communication tool to get to know people better.
2. To find out more about Stefanie's practice, visit her web site here.
3. Giorgia Lupi, is an information designer based in New York.
4. Rebecca Wright is Dean of Graphic Communication Design, Spatial Practices and Culture & Enterprise at CSM. She is also a co-founder of GraphicDesign& who collaborated with Stefanie on their book Graphic Designers Surveyed (available to borrow from the UAL library).

Advisory · King's Cross, F201
Tuesday 25 February 2020, 5.30pm

Samuel Mensah, Youth Worldwide¹Graphic Design as a Springboard

Samuel Mensah’s² practice explores how we can wield graphic design to create the most impact in our world. In his lecture, he will explore the power of young creators, posing the the question: How can we as creatives fulfil our deeper purpose in life through the field of graphic communication design?

Samuel is a London-based creative, whose experience spans various creative disciplines and industries, from branding and art direction, to digital product design and industrial design. The founder of Youth Worldwide – a platform dedicated to showcasing and nurturing emerging creative talent locally in London and around the world – he believes in the power of young creatives, and the potential of using your educational foundations as a springboard for your career.

Samuel studied BA Graphic and Media Design at LCC, and since created and been credited with producing award winning campaigns and products for clients including including Nike, Google and Virgin. He is also a D&AD, DesignWeek, Design Museum, Cannes Lions and UAL Ambassador working closely with the institutions to mentor the next generation of creatives, helping students and young people to find their path and hone their creative skills.

Samuel will introduced by Mikael Calandra Achode.³

1. A 2016 interview with Samuel in Design Week where he discusses the founding of Youth Worldwide.
2. A 2018 interview with Samuel in Lecture in Progress.
3. Mikael Calandra Achode is Lecturer on BA Graphic Communication Design at CSM. He interned alongside Samuel at Gilbert & George studios when they were both undergraduates.

Lauren Alexander and Niels Schrader make work that’s focused on foregrounding under- or mis-represented narratives. Both teaching at KABK, Lauren is an artist, designer and researcher and Niels is a conceptual new media designer and typographer. They will present two projects, Foundland Collective and Acid Clouds, which consider critical perspectives on communication design and storytelling.

Lauren Alexander is a tutor in graphic design and non-linear narrative at KABK, whose practice focuses on design as a tool for impactful storytelling. She will talk about Foundland Collective,² which she started in 2009 with Syrian designer Ghalia Elsrakbi³. Foundland explores under-represented political and historical narratives by working with archives via art, design, writing, educational formats, video making and storytelling. The collective’s work critically reflects on what it means to produce politically-engaged work from the position of non-Western artists working between Europe and the Middle East.

Niels Schrader is a conceptual new media designer and typographer and co-head of BA Graphic Design and MA Non-linear Narrative at KABK. He will introduce his ongoing research project Acid Clouds⁴, which brings a critical perspective to the field of contemporary communication, focusing on the environmental impact of software and data waste. Acid Clouds uses online tools to understand what happens when the resources needed to create, share and store our daily output of 2.5 quintillion bytes of so-called “virtual” data encroach on the physical environment.

Lauren and Niels will be introduced by Jaap de Maat.⁵

1. KABK have an ongoing exchange with BA Graphic Communication Design at CSM.
2. Foundland Collective is a collaboration between Lauren Alexanderand Syrian designer Ghalia Elsrakbi that explores under-represented politicaland historical narrative and makes politically enegaged design.
3. Ghalia Elsrakbi is an Instructor at the American University in Cairo.
4. Acid Clouds is a programme of research on digital pollution by Niels Schrader based at KABK.
5. Jaap de Maat is Stage Leader on BA Graphic Communication Design at CSM. He and Peter Hall will be co-delivering a workshop at KABK as a teaching exchange this spring.

For our final event of the year, we will use the everyday medium of badges to collate and relate keywords and ideas raised throughout the series⁴.

Communication designer Cally Gatehouse will be running a drop-in badge-making workshop from 10am–5pm on Monday April 20th and Tuesday April 21st, in F201.

All GCD students and staff will be invited to create a series of badges⁵. To conclude this special event, on the evening of April 21, we will hold a swap and exhibition, where we can trade badges and together reconsider some of the complex tensions and ideas that have emerged throughout the year.

1. Cally Gatehouse is a communication designer and lecturer at the Northumbria School of Design.
2. According the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, '"Dialectics" is a term used to describe a method of philosophical argument that involves some sort of contradictory process between opposing sides.' However, it’s a term that’s been defined and re-defined in many different ways across history.
3. According to the Collins English Dictionary, a badge is 'a piece of metal or cloth which you wear to show that you belong to an organisation or support a cause'. Collins also notes that in American English the word "button" is normally used to refer to badges of the 'small round metal' variety, the kind we will be making.
4. We have set up Onedrive document which we will use during each event to collect these at tiny.cc/csmgcd.
5. Badges will be produced in editions of five (one to keep, one to archive and three to swap).